Chinese originals

At the beginning I would like to show a Chinese thimble produced in a typical for this country decorative technology called cloisonne* (filling a metal frame with colour pigments).

This thimble is completely useless with regard to its shape (a humming bird sitting on the top of the thimble) and also with regard to its huge (for a thimble) dimensions (metal thimble Humming bird - China).

China enchants with characteristic and absolutely beautiful patterns, but first of all it is worth to pay attention to atypical materials of which thimbles are made. It is not so easy to find porcelain thimbles dominating in other countries (porcelain thimble Chineses - China).

A great part of my Chinese collection constitute thimbles made of cloisonne method - mentioned above and many shapes are presented among them, from those traditional - utilitarian with hollows and no enamel layer on the bottom (metal thimble Panda bear - China, metal thimble Bird of paradise - China), through those with funny shapes and little, not enameled patch on the bottom (metal thimble Cat - China, metal thimble Owl - China), to forms which make it impossible to using those peculiat equipment for sewing purposes (such as a thimble with humming bird).

I wrote about atypical materials and below you will find examples of thimbles made of stones: black jade (stone thimbles Black monkey - China), green jade (stone thimble Green frog - China), syntetic turquoise (turquoise thimble Turquoise turtle - China, turquoise thimble Dragonfly - China) and buffalo bone - thimbles of very impressive dimensions (bone thimble Large dragon - China).

Last but not least - completely atypical for Chinease works - ceramics specimen. As a matter of fact, it is a figurine with a hole but sold as a thimble. In my collection I have three such curiosities. You can see one of them below (ceramics thimble Cat in a bag - China).

* cloisonne:

A technique for decorating metalwork objects. It is very popular way of various products manufacturing in China and not only. The oldest works made in this technique came from the end of a second century B.C. and they have been found in Cyprus.

Cloisonne consists in creation of a metal form through soldering thin metal stripes (which form a pattern) to a smooth thimble. Then, spaces between stripes are being filled with colour enamels. Various forms (such as vases, flowerpots, plates, figurines and thimbles as well) are manufactured this way. Besides thimbles like this one above, utilitarian thimbles are also made in this techique. Such specimens are decorated around and the bottom is perforated and without enamel coat.

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